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Fishing - angling for others hooked on the hobby AND folks who want to try
Do you Fish? Do you eat them or let 'em go? How'd you get into it and what were the confusing bits? Memory of a good time or lessons you wished someone taught you?
Do you want to try but haven't ever been? Did you fish as a kid and never again? What would make it easier for you to give it a go? Tried your city's "learn to fish" programs? What if you had someone else clean and cook it?
If your experience or interest limited to digital fish only, what's your thoughts on why every game and its predecessor has fishing mini-games? It's the dangnabbit armageddon but let's pause and fish for a bit first. Wild.
inspired by this super cool thread on treasure hunting kind of fishing,
I lived in the northeast US for many years and did a lot of bass fishing on lakes and ponds. Now I live in the southwest US and there aren’t many lakes and ponds in my area. I’m learning how to fish for trout in streams and will probably take this opportunity to finally try out fly fishing soon.
I’m kind of the opposite. I grew up in Southern California and would occasionally fish at the beach or when we went on camping trips. I got started with some friends after high school as my parents never were outdoorsy. My kids didn’t like fishing much when we lived in California.
Now we live in the Midwest and my youngest (16) loves fishing. We live in the city, but ponds, lakes, rivers, and creeks are everywhere here. Similar to @Thanatos929, my son doesn’t like cleaning the fish, but often comes home with fish for me to clean and cook. In fact, last week he sent me a video at 11:30PM excited because he caught a large bass in the pond near our house and wanted me to clean it before I left for work at 5:00AM. Needless to say it didn’t get cleaned before work, but when I got home from work he had a few other panfish to add to the bass so we could have fish for dinner. When we went to Hawaii a few years ago, he begged that we charter a boat for deep sea fishing and we caught 5 Mahi Mahi, a needle fish, and tons of mackerels to use as bait.
At work, there are several people that keep their gear in their truck so that they can go fishing before or after work (usually depending on schedule). People that work at other locations often look for excuses to come and visit my location just to get some fishing in since it’s so good. Monday mornings are often filled with talk about weekend fishing trips or tips on where the good local spots are.
That sounds like a very fishing friendly environment :)
Mahi Mahi is delicious. For the mackerel bait, do you keep them alive on a line swimming around, or no longer alive and just dangle down from one spot?
They were kept alive while we trolled around. The boat had a small container that filled with sea water so the mackerel can stay alive and fresh.
Oh I would love to go ocean fishing that sounds really cool
I used to fish a lot with my dad when i was younger but now that im a lot older ive become a lot more closed off with my parents and havent gone fishing with him since. doesnt help that now all they wanna talk about is me and school and its just not a fun topic. But that said, when we used to fish we would mostly catch catfish in a canal by a port town, we didnt eat any of them we would just catch and release.
A kindly neighbour took me fishing two years ago and showed me what kind of gear to use for fishing mackerel.
My understanding is that they're super entry-level: small, bites anything shiny that passes by, good to eat, doesn't care what kind of lure you use, don't even bother with bait. I've got some on sunny days, cloudy days, morning afternoon evenings. They just....kinda circle close to the dock and come home to be eaten.
With the difficulty set to super low, I've had decent (and delicious) success - but basically unsure how to move up from here.
Maybe.....there's got to be other kinds of fish in the same location, so maybe I'll look up what species they are and what they want to eat?
note: Atlantic Mackerel in Canada - April to Dec; minimum length 26.8cm / 10.5"; 20 fish per person per day limit; no license required
My father and I used to fish when I was a kid. We were of the mindset that if you caught it (and it was large enough/old enough) you had to eat it. I enjoyed the process of fishing (well, as much as any kid enjoys sitting still and being quiet), especially that moment when you get a bite. I did not, however, enjoy cleaning the fish. Haha.
I have the equipment to get back into it, but I haven't really set aside the time for it.
If you caught it you had to eat it
That's a good policy.
Yeah it does take time to go out for the morning or day if it's not super close by. And the accompanying gadgets / supplies
My dad taught me to fish while growing up in AK. Salmon and halibut from rivers and the ocean mostly. I stopped fishing when I moved away, but recently started up again in the Midwest. I work remote and know very few people where I live. It's sometimes challenging to find good places to fish. Especially when I'm not as familiar with lake fishing.
Thankfully, after getting skunked all but once last year, I've started to have success. Mostly little pan fish not worth keeping, but it's better than nothing! Fighting the fish is my favorite part, so I want to try targeting Walleye and Pike more.
In the northeast United States. Grew up fishing on Lake Champlain and been having trouble adapting to small lakes with a lot of pressure. Mostly fish for bass. Always catch and release.
What kind of pressure? You're not talking about depths or atmospheric pressure I assume?
It means there's a lot of people fishing there.
Got it. Yeah I feel the same way. It's a relaxing, private and solitary activity for me.
I just drive on by to the next spot or come back another day if folks are already there.
While I also agree with that philosophy, when you say a lake has a lot of pressure, that means that there's too many people fishing there in general.
So it may be empty when I go, but the fish aren't biting because they still remember getting caught, have eaten the worms off ten kids' hooks, have too many boaters making noise, etc.
This can be a challenge because the best places to put s boat in often are heavily used. Several lakes where I live are completely surrounded by private property. So there's an almost entirely developed shoreline.
Champlain is a big lake and you could literally be miles from another person even putting in at a popular access point.
I got into kayak fishing after two of my recently acquired work friends invited me. Got hooked on it ever since. I've been fishing since I was a kid (live in Wisconsin) but the freedom and ease of kayaking has opened up tons of places not only to travel to but also just in terms of fishing strategy.
Ooooh that sounds really cool. Rivers and lakes kayak?
Yeah, mainly lakes. I go mostly for bass, but I get a fair amount of Northern Pike along the way. It only took me a little bit to get the hang of it, and not long after I bought a Vibe Seaghost 130 (13 foot). I like not having to haul a literal boat and have to deal with fuel/noise, it makes for a very relaxing time. I can easily fit my pole and gear on it and setup/teardown is not even 20 minutes.
My main hangout is about an hour away, on some backwaters of the Mississippi. I'm lucky of I see even one other person on the water, and it's right off a highway but far enough from any major cities that there's still plenty of wildlife around.
got my fishing liscence three years ago here in Germany, Berlin. The process to obtain a fishing liscence is notoriously complicated and expensive. about 200 euros costs in total and about 1-2 months of learning, similar to the driving liscence test, of memorizing around 500+ questions and being able to ID most fish here. Gonna go fishing this saturday again, havent gone since last year, cant wait to catch some lil perchies.
Wow, that's crazy! Where I live in the US it's literally a $20 or so fee and there's no test or anything. There is a rulebook but most things don't change much, except certain lakes and rivers might change the limits of fish you can take depending on the population surveys.
When I moved out to the area, I bought a rule book and a laminated guide to the various local fish. When I was getting rung up, the cashier looked at me like I’m crazy and asked why I was wasting my money on them. When I explained that I was new to the area, he shrugged and mumbled that it was a waste of money. Jokes on him though since my son has memorized both and I’ve at least read parts of both. The last thing I want to do is start keeping the wrong fish and destroying the ecosystem.
Very interesting. There's some species that are catch and release only, but that's primarily sturgeon and a few endangered species, but that's more specific to certain bodies of water, most others are fair game.
I fish in the lakes up here in Canada. Mostly Jack but sometimes I go for perch or walleye. I've been going since I was a kid and have a lot of fond memories either in a boat or on the ice.
Question: I've never gone lake fishing before but have a chance this weekend at a Canadian lake.
If you don't know what fish live in a new lake (or if there are fish) do you just bring a bunch of stuff and see what works?
I'm in Alberta so keep that in mind. There are always jack fish (Northern pike), they thrive pretty much anywhere. They put up a good fight so they are fun to catch and a decent eating fish if you're eating them fresh but I usually catch and release. If you have some spoons you can almost always catch but I've always had luck with the 5 of diamonds in particular. Good luck, I hope you have fun!
Do you use frogs (real or artificial) up there? I get plenty of Pike when I'm frogging for bass down here in Wisconsin, but that's also near the shoreline, around trees/lilly pads, etc. My parents have been up to Canada but it sounds like they are often out in the deeper sections of the huge lake they fish so that's a whole different strategy.
I've never tried with frogs. Spoons work whether I'm trolling or just casting from shore. I've also caught Jacks while jigging for perch or walleye. Honestly I think they will hit on just about anything up here. I'm not usually in deep or huge lakes though so your parents would definitely have a different experience than me.
Yeah, Pike will bite just about anything here too. I asked them last night and they went up to lake Nipigon, which yeah, that's a huge lake! Apparently Pike there easily get close to or over 40 inches, each time they went someone caught one around that size. The biggest I've caught was probably 24 inches or so.
Damn those are big! Biggest I've got was probably only 30 inch up by cold Lake. I don't know if I've ever seen a 40inch pike! They must be a lot of fun to catch!